Where You Belong
by MrJamesileee
Summary: Set immediately after Season 8 Episode 2. Brett is adjusting to being back to Chicago and to 51, but it feels like something's missing. Does she regret her decision to leave Fowlerton for the life she knew? Everyone at 51 is glad to have Sylvie back, some more than others...
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I am still actively working on Settle Down (I'm Terrified) but I couldn't get this idea out of my head. Set in current Chicago verse, right after Brett's return. We all know the 51 family missed Brett, and we all know who missed her the most. This is my take on that. Any advice or criticism would be greatly appreciated._

"What's the matter with you?"

Foster looked up from her phone to see Kidd looming over her bunk, perturbed expression on her face.

"Excuse me?" Foster raised an eyebrow skeptically. She wasn't allowed to lay on a bunk, now?

"I just thought with your girl bein' back you'd be all kinds of happy. Where is she, anyway?" Kidd asked, rounding the wall and plopping onto the bunk next to Foster's.

"I'm not sure. And of course I'm glad she's back," she rolled her eyes.

"But…?"

"There is no 'but', Kidd. Drop it," Foster snapped, though she knew Stella well enough to know better.

"You worried you're _too_ happy she's back?" Kidd asked, knowing all too well.

"Kidd, I said drop it."

"I'm just sayin', you might wanna act like you're a little glad to see her," she shrugged, noticing Brett outside the bunk room. "It was _your_ idea to drive to the boonies to get her."

"Everything can just go back to normal now, okay?" Foster pleaded with her eyes, hoping that Kidd would take the hint and _never_ bring this up again.

"Sure… normal…" Kidd grumbled, walking away as Brett entered.

"What's up?!" Brett asked cheerfully, leaning against Foster's bunk with a smile on her face.

"How's your adjustment to being home going?" Foster couldn't help but smile back, setting her phone aside and giving Brett her undivided attention.

"Could be better, honestly," Brett shrugged, perching next to Foster on the small bed.

"Why?" Foster asked, concern evident.

"Well…" Brett began quietly, almost nervously. "See I've been back fora few days now, I'm trying to settle in and everything, but I just feel like something's missing."

At this point, Foster was scared. Did Brett think she'd made a mistake by coming back to 51?

"What's missing?" Foster asked quietly, running her hand down Brett's back soothingly.

Brett looked into Foster's eyes and then quickly away.

"I kind of hoped you'd be happier to see me," she admitted sadly. "That we could spend some time together. Four months was a long time to be away, and it felt like even longer," she shrugged awkwardly.

Foster's expression spread into a smile that took over her face, in spite of the emotion her friend was conveying. Without conscious though, she wrapped Brett into a huge bear hug from the side and squeezed as the other woman giggled.

"You thought I wasn't happy to see you?!" Foster asked, muffled by Brett's ribcage as she continued to crush her friend with her embrace. "That's ridiculous! I was just trying to give you space to adjust (lie)."

"Well I don't need space," Brett rasped out between giggles (Foster was starting to tickle her now), "I need YOU!"

Foster grinned wildly, pulling back to look at Brett's beaming face. She still had her body wrapped completely around Brett's sitting form. Without having to move, she began tickling Brett's ribs aggressively, causing her friend to squeak and squeal in laughter.

"Some way to show me you missed me!" Brett panted, smacking Foster's hands away fruitlessly.

"You know you missed my tickle torture!" Foster said, unrelenting. "No one tickles like I do," she grinned, calming and resting her head on Brett's thigh. "What do you say after work I come over and help you finish unpacking?" she asked, still breathless from the wrestle.

"Offering to help me unpack?!" Brett gasped, touching Foster's hair instinctively. "You must have _really_ missed me."

XXX

"You comin' out tonight?" Kidd asked casually as she and Foster gathered their belongings at end of shift.

"Uh, probably not," Foster shrugged, making brief eye contact with her nosey friend.

"Oooh. Hot date?" Kidd assumed, earning an immediate eye roll from Foster.

"No, Kidd. I told Brett I'd finish helping her unpack," she told her, shoving clothing into her duffel bag and planning her escape.

"Ah… I thought you might say that," Kidd said, shit-eating grin on in full force.

"No, you didn't," Foster laughed at the woman. "Why in the hell would you think I would say that?" she asked with a light-hearted chuckle.

"I saw your little reunion in the bunk today," Kidd wagged her eyebrows for affect. "Did you finally tell her _just how much_ you missed her?"

"Stella." Her tone was a warning. Stella never was much for caution.

"'Cause it's pretty damn clear how much she missed you," she noted.

"Look, she said she thought I'd be happier to see her and that made me feel awful. I told her I was just giving her space to adjust to being back," Foster sighed, sitting on the bench, duffel bag in hand.

"Well that's bullshit," Kidd called out without hesitation. "Did you at least tell her that it was your idea to bring her home?"

"It doesn't matter whose idea it was, Stella. She's home now."

"It _absolutely _matters whose idea it was," Stella countered. "_You're _the one who knew her well enough to know how unhappy she was. You felt what she was feeling and you did somethin' about it."

Foster shrugged in quiet contemplation as Brett entered the locker room, wrapped in a towel and looking peaceful and refreshed. She smiled at her friends, choosing to ignore the thick silence surrounding them. Stella gave Foster a pointed look which was fortunately unnoticed by Brett.

"Hey, Em, did you need to stop home or are we just going straight to my place?" Brett asked casually, drying off her damp hair and causing Foster's mouth to become dry.

"Naw, I think I'm good," Foster said, looking through her duffel bag for… well, anything.

"After you're done unpacking you two should come to Molly's," Kidd interjected herself into the conversation in hopes of saving Foster from herself. "You haven't been out since you've been back."

"You know, that might not be a bad idea," Brett decided with a smile. "I've been so focused on uprooting my life, again, that I haven't let myself have any fun."

"Sweet! The boys will be glad to hear it," Kidd smiled sincerely.

"Are you going to Molly's, Em, or do you have a date tonight?" Brett asked suddenly, looking into her locker as she asked. Stella tried like hell to ignore the disappointment she heard in her friend's voice.

"No date," Foster smiled softly.

"Come to think of it, you haven't been on a date in a while, Foster," Kidd said pointedly, looking right into Foster's eyes as she spoke.

Foster tilted her head at the woman skeptically, fully understanding what she was trying to do.

"No, I guess I haven't," she practically spat, causing Brett to turn to her briefly.

"So… Molly's it is," Brett said awkwardly, trying to break the tension that she didn't quite understand.

"Molly's it is."

XXX


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: just a short segue chapter. I have this whole thing blueprinted so it's pretty easy to get my words out, for once. I hope you enjoy. Please let me know what you think._

"Do you think that Cruz is still gonna break the lease, now that you're back?" Foster asked from the living room, looking at the array of boxes that Kyle had shipped from Fowlerton.

"I'm not sure," Brett asked, muffled from her head being in the refrigerator. She emerged a moment later, beers in her hands. "Between the two of us we could afford it, but I don't know if he can live with Otis's memory every day," she shrugged, sitting on the couch next to Foster and handing her a beverage.

Foster looked at the proffered beer skeptically, fighting her smirk amid such a sensitive topic of conversation.

"What about you?" she asked, deciding to hold off on commenting about Brett 'starting early' for now. "Can you live with his memory here?"

"I think he'd want us to, you know? He wouldn't want us to give this place up because he's not here. He'd probably be disappointed," she said honestly.

"You're right," Foster nodded with a solemn smile as she casually rifled through a box. "Maybe you should say that to Joe?"

"I will. If he still needs to get out of here I'm sure I can find a smaller place. And now that I know I have an unpacking company at my beck and call…" she added with a grin, poking Foster in the ribs goofily.

"Let me guess, I'd be your moving company too?" Foster joked, smacking Brett's probing hand away.

"That _does_ sound pretty appealing," Brett narrowed her eyes in a smile before turning to the boxes.

"Hey Brett, guess what?" Foster asked, gleam in her eyes.

"What?"

"It's five o'clock somewhere, but that somewhere isn't here," she smirked, raising her beer.

"Hey!" Brett gasped, hitting Foster with a pillow easily and causing the woman to burst into laughter. "I told you I haven't had any fun since I've been back!" she defended. "And tomorrow is my first day off…"

"I'm just giving you a hard time, Sylv. I have four months of giving you crap to make up for," Foster bumped her shoulder affectionately.

"I look forward to it…"

Brett trailed off as she pulled a frame out of the box, a picture of herself and Kyle, smiling and happy, the day they arrived in Fowlerton. Her demeanor changed visibly as she took in the photograph and thought about the upheaval of her life in the last few months.

"You miss him?" Foster asked quietly, noting what had caught her friend's eye.

"It's weird, ya know?" Brett began, searching for words of which she was still unsure. "I miss him, yeah. But I don't miss _being_ with him. Does that make sense? You must think I'm awful," she shook her head and set the picture back in the box.

"I could _never_ think you were awful. And I _do_ get it. Kyle's a great guy but I have to admit, I was shocked when you said you'd marry him," Foster admitted, taking a big sip of her beer and going back to the box.

"Honestly, so was I," Brett sighed, pulling out a few dishes and keepsakes and setting them aside. "I think… I was just so happy that he came around. Happy that he realised he didn't want to lose me. And that made me not want to lose him."

Foster nodded and contemplated the words of her friend. She had been so worried that Brett regretted moving back to Chicago that she hadn't considered her regret for leaving in the first place.

"Did you love him?"

She had to ask. She had to _know_, even if she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"Before we broke up, I think I did. Or I was starting to," Brett told her, scooting to the floor at Foster's feet in order to unpack more easily. "And yeah, I was heartbroken when he ended things, but I had already been over it. When he came back, out of nowhere, I think I convinced myself that I wasn't."

Foster rested her hand on Brett's shoulder comfortingly. She had never felt the way that Brett felt; not the love, or the heartache, or the desperation. She was torn between feeling grateful and disappointed for that.

"Well if you plan on getting your drink on tonight, we better get to work," Foster said suddenly, deciding it was time to lighten the mood. She would always be there for her friend when she needed to talk about it, but she didn't want this to drag Brett down and ruin her first night of relaxation either.

"Thanks for being here, Em," Sylvie said so genuinely that Foster felt a pang in her chest at the words. "Every day that we didn't talk, I wished we had. You have no idea how much I missed you."

This was it. This was Foster's chance to tell Brett _just _how much she missed her, as Stella would say. Brett practically segued her into it. She could tell her that she thought of her every time she got into the rig. That she couldn't look at the tea kettle in the common room without wishing she was there with her. That she wanted to call her every night before she fell asleep, or when she was trying to relax in the bunk room.

But she didn't.


End file.
